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Online Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Protocol for Measuring Cortical Physiology Associated with Response Inhibition
Published on: February 8, 2018
Interactions between cognition and motivation during response inhibition
Srikanth Padmala1, Luiz Pessoa
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
Neuropsychologia
|November 3, 2009
Summary
Rewarding correct responses impaired participants' ability to stop, showing that motivation can hinder inhibitory control. This suggests a complex interaction between reward and executive functions in the brain.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroeconomics
- Psychology
Background:
- Research increasingly explores motivation's impact on cognitive functions like attention and executive functions.
- Studies often focus on how motivation enhances performance, with less understanding of how incentives might impair behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how positive incentives, specifically reward for correct performance, may impair inhibitory control.
- To test the hypothesis that rewarding 'go' responses would specifically impair 'stop' performance, not just affect reaction time.
Main Methods:
- Participants completed a stop-signal task under two conditions: neutral (control) and rewarded (incentivized for correct 'go' responses).
- Behavioral data (stop-signal reaction times) and neuroimaging data (fMRI) were collected and analyzed.
Main Results:
- Participants showed significantly longer stop-signal reaction times in the rewarded condition compared to the control, indicating reduced inhibitory control.
- Neuroimaging revealed interactions between inhibition and condition in brain regions including the right inferior frontal gyrus, left precentral gyrus, and bilateral putamen.
Conclusions:
- Positive incentives can impair inhibitory control, contrary to the common assumption that motivation always enhances performance.
- Cognitive and motivational signals interact within specific brain networks to modulate inhibitory control, highlighting the nuanced relationship between reward and executive function.
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